New York  - US stocks posed strong gains Wednesday on better- than-expected data from the US housing, manufacturing and auto sectors.

Sales of existing homes climbed 2.1 per cent in February from the month before, according to the National Association of Realtors, another small sign that the housing downturn that sparked the US economic crisis may be bottoming out.

Los Angeles - The longest running soap opera in the United States is to end after 72 years on the air, the CBS network announced Wednesday.

Guiding Light, began its TV run in 1952 after making the transition from radio where it had debuted 15 years earlier. The show has been suffering from consistently dropping ratings in recent years, but television network CBS gave no reason for the decision to axe the show, which will air its last broadcast on September 18.

Washington  - Car sales in the United States remained very weak in March, plummeting more than 38 per cent on average from 2008, but carmakers pointed to signs that the market may be bottoming out as they struggle to survive the global recession.

General Motors Corp reported a 45-per-cent decline in sales in March compared to the same month a year earlier. Ford Motor Co said sales fell 41 per cent and Chrysler LLC reported sales dropped 39 per cent.

San Francisco  - Confiker, the April Fool's worm, began contacting pre-designated websites for instructions on Wednesday, and while no malicious instructions had been downloaded, security researchers warned that the virus could still wreak havoc at any time.

"It's like a loaded gun that could go off anytime," said Patrik Runald, chief security advisor of technology security firm F-Secure.

Washington - The United States on Wednesday said it would continue to work towards a two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, but stopped short of criticizing incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Barack Obama called Netanyahu to congratulate him on being sworn in as prime minister Wednesday and "reaffirmed the United States' steadfast commitment to Israel and its security," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

London  - US President Barack Obama and Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao moved Wednesday to lay aside a recent round of tensions between Washington and Beijing by committing themselves to working together to combat the global recession.

The relationship between China and the United States said Obama following his meeting with Hu "is not only important for the citizens of both our countries, but will help to set the stage for how the world deals with a whole host of challenges in the years to come."